Boy brings gun to school

Two students, 11 and 12, arrested after it goes off

STOCKTON - A single, accidental gunshot rang out in a south Stockton seventh-grade classroom Monday morning, wounding no one but resulting in the arrests of two boys, ages 11 and 12, Stockton Unified Police Chief Jim West said.

STOCKTON - A single, accidental gunshot rang out in a south Stockton seventh-grade classroom Monday morning, wounding no one but resulting in the arrests of two boys, ages 11 and 12, Stockton Unified Police Chief Jim West said.

According to West, the 11-year-old boy brought the loaded .22-caliber handgun into his classroom at Van Buren Elementary, removed it from his backpack and handed it to a 12-year-old classmate.

West said the second boy mishandled the gun and accidentally fired it into the floor before the teacher, who declined to be interviewed, quickly grabbed the gun and alerted the school office.

Five Stockton Unified officers, including West, rushed to the school, as did three administrators from the district's central office. Van Buren was placed on lockdown for about two hours.

The boys, whose identities were not released because of their ages, were arrested by Stockton Unified police and booked into Juvenile Hall, West said. Bringing a weapon onto a campus and discharging a firearm at a school are felonies.

Superintendent Steve Lowder said the district's minimum punishment for the boys is likely to be expulsion from Stockton Unified for one year. The students also face possible punishment from the criminal-justice system.

"Clearly, there's going to be a harsh lesson learned," Lowder said. "You don't bring a gun to school. It's sort of like a bomb in the airport: These are things you just don't do. ... Schools need to be safe havens for students, parents and staff."

Van Buren Principal Ione Ringen said if there was any bright side to the incident, it was that the shooting was not done in anger.

"It was simply a kid being stupid with a gun," Ringen said. "He was showing off a gun in the class. ... I'm disappointed that one of our students made a poor decision like that and brought something unsafe on campus."

Ringen said the school, at 1628 E. 10th St., will host a community meeting at 5:30 p.m. today to discuss the incident.

Most of Van Buren's students continued with classes after the shot was fired.

Officers interviewed the students involved and the teacher from the classroom where the shooting occurred, but West said, "The kids aren't talking. We don't know why (the gun) was there, and they won't tell us. ... There is no indication anybody was targeted."

According to Ringen, the boys who were arrested had histories of discipline for only "minor incidents ... fairly typical for their grade level." She added, "The two children involved are students who like to come to school. That's what's too bad."

Amanda Ramirez, a parent with three children who attend Van Buren, stopped by the school Monday morning to pick up her 5-year-old kindergartner, who was sick.

"I'm shaking," Ramirez said. "I want to take all three of my kids out of school (for the day), but I know that's not right, because that will only frighten them more."

West said even before Monday's incident, he had been directed by Lowder to study the feasibility of using drug- and gunpowder-sniffing dogs at Stockton Unified campuses. He also said the weapon fired Monday had not been reported stolen and had not yet been found to have been registered.

"The tragedy is that there are so many guns, there's so much gun violence in this city, that for some of these kids, there's a sense of normalcy," West said. "Guns are far too readily available to these kids."